➢𝗣𝗜𝗖𝗞𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗨𝗣 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗣𝗜𝗘𝗖𝗘𝗦➢

『 And I want you to know
You couldn't have loved me better
But I want you to move on
So I'm already gone 』
―𝘚𝘭𝘦𝘦𝘱𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘈𝘵 𝘓𝘢𝘴𝘵, 𝘈𝘭𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘺 𝘎𝘰𝘯𝘦

⟶𝑪𝒉𝒂𝒑𝒕𝒆𝒓 25: 𝑭𝒐𝒓 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑳𝒐𝒗𝒆 𝑶𝒇 𝑨 𝑴𝒐𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓⟵

𝘽𝙇𝘼𝙈𝙀.

-𝐎𝐂𝐓𝐎𝐁𝐄𝐑 𝟏𝟔𝐓𝐇, 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟑-

𝐀𝐕𝐄𝐍𝐆𝐄𝐑𝐒 𝐅𝐀𝐂𝐈𝐋𝐈𝐓𝐘, 𝐍𝐄𝐖 𝐘𝐎𝐑𝐊

~ 𝐍𝐎𝐑𝐌𝐀𝐋 𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐄 ~

NOT EVERYONE MAKES IT OUT ALIVE.

The Time Heist is complete. Each and every infinity stone has been collected from its designated timeline in preparation for a reversal. To reverse what Thanos had done, only made possible through going back in time.

And they did it. All groups, assignments, but even then their trips to the past come with a cost that is impenetrable.

A loss.

The large machine inside the Avengers Compound's testing chamber whirs loudly when twisting back and forth, the Avengers currently traveling through the Quantum Realm. In their white Quantum Tunnel suits, they return to normal size once exiting it. Everyone respawns into existence.

Into the present day, October 2023.

Bodies feel the rippling effect as does the concoction above them but once settled, they are frantic to know, did they do it?

"Did we get 'em all?" Bruce asks as his helmet comes off.

Others mimic the same action and expression once theirs are removed.

Rhodey's face presents a little excitement as he holds the container of the Power Stone up, "Are you telling me this actually worked?"

Nebula's features are stone-cold, normally like how she usually acted, but something was odd about it. Why not be more celebratory? They've got their chance.

The elation is short-lived when someone steps down rather harshly, and many gazes follow.

They shortly realize... that someone is missing from their impending victory.

Dani and Clint both stand a few feet away from one another, the male soaked from head to toe and the young female completely dry―the drops of snow in her braided hair have melted. She was not the one who officially retrieved the orange infinity stone.

Steve, having returned from a different location than last time considering he and Tony went to the 1970s, tries his best to keep himself from gaping at the terror-stricken state his daughter takes on. Her face has never been so sickly pale. 

That worries him, completely and endlessly... but he can't formulate a quick enough response to ask why. He doesn't want... to ask why.

Bruce is on it diligently, desperately, "Clint, where's Nat?"

A horrific silence fills out the room, the only noises heard being the anticipation from the rest of the Avengers, and the eighteen year old's shallow, panicked breathing. Dani has most of her senses working, though despite being able to feel the blue eyes of her father staring at her as if to elicit a reply, she fails to look at him even once. She can't. 

If she does, she'll lose it. 

She wasn't really sure how much was left when it came to parts of her soul, necessarily what else she had to be taken from her... and for that Dani is slightly off, astray. The girl can hardly focus right now.

On anything and anyone, but for the moment that was warranted.

Because Clint's jaw entirely flipped upside down, his mouth trembling, eyes a glassful of tears do enough nonverbal communication for what has just gone down.

For what... has happened to their third team member, Natasha Romanoff.

She's gone. She's dead.

She made a sacrifice.

She... she told Dani Rockland, that Dani was not at all similar to her but instead better. More powerful.

The eighteen-year-old has never felt so weak in her entire life.

She aches, her bones grit together harshly as her stance is tense and stiff, she feels like a tin machine needing an oil change before being able to move again―but most if not all of her heart is broken. It's shattered into a million pieces. 

Pieces that scatter among all her losses. 

There's a piece in London, two, and now one forever, on Vormir.

One in 2014, belonging to Natasha Romanoff.

Natasha. Natty.

Dani inhales shakily before her eyelids blink shut.

... oh, god ... Natty.

A soft gasp echoes out of Bruce's mouth at discovering the unspoken truth. Feelings that developed long ago but never went away for the Black Widow immediately resurface, and he experiences tremendous guilt. He is horrified.

Steve is worse. The Soldier, not prone to showing emotions outwardly, struggles with keeping it all in, and his face reads that of a saddened man to find out that his close friend is gone. A close friend, his best friend, and partner-in-crime when it came to the world and to raising Dani... the one person he actually considered good enough to be Dani's mother.

A person here that... that he loved.

Like family. She was his family.

His family, and Dani's...

He couldn't imagine what had happened, what led to it, though in the heart of Captain America there is immeasurable gratitude that whatever occurred, Natasha put Dani first. She kept the girl safe as she promised. Like they promised. 

The loss affects him on a deep, personal level, but wholeheartedly if Steve were to experience any more losses―evidently if Dani were to die, he honestly would not see a point in going on in this world.

He would feel lost, and confused, more so than he does right now, but those emotions are tied to the bond carried within his daughter. That his daughter... endures so strongly and on her own right now. 

Right now Dani fortifies.

No tears slip down her face; they only remain in the back of her eyes. They have dried a bit in repression. Her stance is still straight as her boots are planted firmly across from one another, even weight distributed.

On her black suit that was a replica of the Black Widow's are a few sudden sparks of electricity that make the double-braided girl cry out in a buzzing pain.

Concerned eyes turn to her as the sensation experienced is one of mild electrocution, a familiar sense that had been placed upon her before.

... Wait.

Dani's avid hands make claw marks against her back until finding the direct trigger, the source of the constant pain, and it is after the fact that she realizes Natasha Romanoff had indeed outsmarted her one last time. Gained the upper hand.

A small, gray disk-stabilizer is pulled off the combat suit the eighteen-year-old wears, and as she holds it out in the palm of her hand, shortly she forms a fist that closes like a flower. She squeezes angrily. Blue aura emerges like a flame that destroys the disk into ashes and dust, though its effect is still prominent in planning. In purpose.

To avoid fighting her at her full potential, because, if not just hand-to-hand Dani would've defeated Natasha, she is instead baffled to find out that Natty planted a device that would temporarily disable the girl's powers. 

In order to dismantle her, to trick her. 

The eighteen-year-old realizes what has come to be now, exactly why the redheaded woman didn't look so fearful when fighting her. Because she knew, she had a plan.

It involved dismantling Dani. Protecting Dani. 

Leaving, Dani...

Sea-foam eyes swell up, Dani's mouth quivering open in shock. She feels like she needs to throw up. She feels herself becoming unhinged. 

Clint sinks down onto his knees and his face is gone from view, and before anyone could even do the same Danielle has left the vicinity. She strides down the platform steps of the Quantum Chamber and continues straight out the door until she is gone and out of sight.

Dante, noticeably, no longer is present inside the Avengers Compound. Otherwise, he would have stopped her.

No one follows or makes an effort to call for her back because they are still dealing with the revelating trauma itself, what matters.

The Avengers were successful in recollecting all six Infinity Stones from the past, yes, but... at what cost? 

The greatest and mountainous one ever.

❀❀❀

THE ORIGINAL FIVE GATHER JUST OUTSIDE THE COMPOUND. Without anything meaningful to send her life off with, presumably having what was most important to her be the people in her life―they have a small service for their female teammate.

For their friend, their sister.

Each Avenger is an emotional representation of grief, and none of them hide or shy away from it.

Steve openly cries. Lines of tears drip down his face, sniffles and harsh lumps swallowed down his throat, and heartfully, he grieves. Rightfully.

Dani is the last one to show up. Her dark brown hair is freshly out of braids, long-wave ringlets reaching down to her back and she is bundled up in a black coat. She walks out to the wooden platform above the lake and finds herself in back of where all the men mourn, not wearing some of their similar expressions of deep sorrow. 

No, Dani's grieving as always... comes much later in the game. The sick, twisted game that was the world. 

So for now she's bitter. 

Tony is the most composed among his teammates, no doubt in pain but he demonstrates a demeanor of acceptance by asking thoughtfully, "Do we know if she had family?"

"Yeah." Steve swallows another harsh gulp before answering, and his words are sincere as he recalls the conversation with the redhead just a few weeks ago, "Us."

The eighteen-year-old hides a shudder when finally picking her green eyes off the floor, laying them on her Dad's sitting figure, and right away again Danielle endures a shot to the stomach. 

He was crying. Her father chokes up.

Dani is not able to tap into her emotions just as easily.

So for now... she's irritated.

She judders her left hip out while simultaneously keeping her arms crossed and after that, a long sigh is emitted, one that pulls her gaze to the ground again and it's almost as if she is severely impatient―she wants to get this over with. 

Somberly grieve―though really not at all―and then continue with the plan. Forming the Infinity Gauntlet. They have to keep moving forward.

Only then does Dani realize, that she is moving backward. Repressing. Reverting. Bad habit. Bad habit. She reminds herself scornfully, or rather another voice does, but the girl shuts it out. 

She blocks any type of conscious resolve or advice from one who is not here anymore, and simply falls victim to her roaring emotions that most definitely are unstable right now. Uncalled for.

Not entirely, but she needs to be held accountable.

...The one responsible for that isn't here anymore―

Stop it. Shut up. Just... shut the hell up, Damnit. The eighteen-year-old breathes through gritted teeth, and that is when she is given another reason to bare her pearly whites.

An in-denial Thor suddenly makes his disagreement known as he questions Iron Man, "What?"

"Huh?" Tony in his shades turns to him, and from there the God of Thunder is irrepressible in expressing his feelings.

Feelings that are only feelings... won't actually do anything, by the way. Like...

"What are you doing?"

"Just asked him a question."

"Yeah, no," Thor bites back as he nears Tony, launching a gloved finger in his direction, "you're acting like she's dead. Why are we acting like she's dead?"

Dani blinks furiously as her formerly 'favorite' Avenger and uncle starts speaking absolute nonsense, "We have the stones, right?"

"As long as we have the Stones, Cap," Thor tries to revive some undesired optimism a tearful Steve's way, and the Captain once again gives in to the overpowering amount of depression swirling in his heart, "We can bring her back. Isn't that right?"

The God grits his teeth while snapping at his teammates, "So, stop this shit. We're the Avengers. Get it together."

He was really one to talk... Dani with a harsh mind non-verbally comments, and the display of raw emotions from an uprising Clint just sparks more annoyance inside of her. She turns her head to the side whilst silently clicking her tongue.

"Can't get her back."

A mohawked Clint Barton is leaning up against the pole of the small lake area near the Compound, and all gazes turn on him. Dani is still brash and harsh.

Thor stares at him dumbfounded with his blue and brown eyes, "What? ... What's he,"

"It can't be undone." Clint solidifies, repeating with more graveness as Dani's tooth sinks lower into her lips, "It can't."

His quiet somberness earns a wheezing laugh to emerge from Thor, and from there he gets even more on Dani's nerves―something she never thought could happen before, "Look, I'm sorry, no offense but, you're a very earthly being, okay?"

"And we're talking about space magic."

"And 'can't' seems very definitive. Don't you think?"

Clint is painfully dry with his truth, "Yeah, look, I know that I'm way outside my pay grade here. But she still isn't here, is she?"

Dani's eyes twitch before she reaches an ultimate boiling point.

"No, that's my point." The long-haired man adds, and then he is startled.

He physically recoils when the sudden outburst that arises out of Danielle Rockland, is one incredibly fiery and rage-filled, directed right at him, "God, would you just shut up, Thor?!"

All men helplessly jolt at the booming voice belonging to Dani, that only seems to grow louder, and more intense.

The girl removes her cold hands from being in her pockets, tossing them into the air as she approaches the God of Thunder, "You're... You're making it so much worse!"

"Have you not been listening to a word of what we've been saying? A soul for a soul. That was the deal. That was the bargain!"

"And now..." Her anger threatens to be replaced by complete and utter despair, at any second, but Dani maintains a strong front―falsely, again, and solidifies without any denial, "Natty is NOT coming back, ever!"

"She's dead."

There is pain in the child's voice. In the loss of a mentor, a mother, and even more she makes it evident that the tight grip she once had on life and reality surely was slipping. 

Emotionally, Dani is falling apart.

So is Clint. He is the only one who was both there and witnessed all that she had. What they are both going through matches up better than anyone else's. Grief, sorrow, regret.

"It was supposed to be me." The mohawked man says with a shaky tone, a moment later.

Dani says something she shouldn't, "Oh, give it a rest."

Her unpleasantness is shameful. Understandable... but shameful. Unnecessary.

Steve, in a weakened state, tries to reprimand his daughter, "Danielle."

His unusually submissive and soft speech does not resonate with the girl, nothing could. Not with something like this.

Hawkeye ignores her while continuing, "She sacrificed herself for that goddamn Stone. She bid her life on it."

He is not able to complete himself when she chimes in again, "I tried to stop her."

And now Clint says something he shouldn't have. He snaps at her.

But, she needs to hear it. Because she was wrong.

"You shouldn't have. You got in the way."

Dani's chin lifts, tension quickly rising as her once endless glare at the God of Thunder shifts to a lips-turned, upside-down frown aimed at the marksman. She swallows.

"I know," her voice finally cracks, vulnerability seeping in and she begins to sound watery, "and that's what hurts the most."

Thor's mouth opens and Tony having removed his sunglasses stares at the back of his niece's head with much concern in his brown eyes. Dani admits her action of blaming herself.

Harshly, "You don't have to tell me that I messed up, because I already can't stand the sight of myself."

Silence seeps through the open lakeside air. 

Until Clint breaks it.

Honestly, he is remorseful, "That... that isn't what I meant to say, Dani. Honey, I'm―"

"'Sorry'?" She steals the phrase, before becoming indifferent and insisting, "Yeah, I'm not. I..."

"I..." 

Her voice is shaky again, broken-sounding, and the bottle cap holding her last fake straw of composure nearly shatters when announcing soft-heartedly, "I... just want her back."

She just wants her mom back.

She just wants her mom back.

...Her mom is gone.

Jacket-wearing arms wrap around the shivering body of a girl who cannot cope, a girl who is becoming unraveled, and a girl who is unraveled at the seams. She is irrational. She is grief-stricken.

And now... she has lost control.

"No, don't!" Dani sputters out when the shoulder Tony Stark tries to make contact with gives off a lightning-fast zap, nearly missing the Ironed Man as others who stand around suddenly become alert.

Feel alarmed.

So is Danielle.

The eighteen-year-old shrinks into herself, truly terrified at the rush of power that runs through her system, and she can feel it. The pieces of the Tesseract, the infinity stone, swirled around within her. Coercing her, reacting strongly to her emotions. Dani does the right thing by leaving.

She cannot do it without distrust, "Don't."

"She's not coming back," Bruce says, just having thrown a bench across the lake in anger, anger at the inevitable.

That their friend, their teammate, isn't coming back.

"We have to make it worth it. We have to."

Steve Rogers stands, "We will."

 ❀❀❀

DANI ROCKLAND IS A LOOSE CANNON. Emotionally, and because of that physically. Once she reaches the solitary of being alone in her quarters, having ventured back into the compound she is a wreck. Figuratively and literally. 

It's like she can barely focus, the lights combine into a stellar force that blasts her eyes out. The walls rotate around her like a wheel, the room spinning abnormally and it makes the eighteen-year-old feel sick. But even then there wouldn't be anything for her to throw up.

Dani shuts her door and hands tug at the black t short-sleeve shirt worn. Her spine presses into the cold wall behind her and her body shortly falls down. Her knees knock together as her distracted gazing is a constant, and through all the girl struggles with more than one thing. But it was most relevant. Control.

The enhanced child tries hard to resist it, the surging energy sensation that was equivalent to feeling something just rip through you, and soon enough Dani finds herself enduring an agony that for once is more than of the heart. Her abilities pound madly at her skin.

"Agh!" She grits out, intaking a sharp breath of air while simultaneously stretching her arms out in support, grabbing onto any structure around her in order to be grounded.

Bracing herself for what is to come, the girl still tries to hold it all back. To keep things from coming unattached. They already have. Reflection glosses around the irises of her sea-foam greens and she loses depth perception when her vision blurs, blurs from the battle within. 

The spiritual war that is lost in a goal of remaining intact, when a tense and sorrow-filled scream containing so much ache is released out of Dani Rockland, and what comes with that is a force of great intensity.

Objects fall off her desk and clatter as a blue aura expels out of the body of the crumpled teenage girl. Dani raises her hands, and her whole room if not most parts of the Compound rumbles with her un-helped actions. It just happened naturally.

Dani tries to suppress, and repress, but eventually reaches a point where that is unavoidable. Unavoidable for mourning the death of who she was mourning. Unbelievable.

It didn't work. Her powers, in direct link with her emotions, are too strong. The pieces of the Tesseract... are too strong.

And Dani... She... She's so tired.

A headache forms due to exhaustion and overexertion and the eighteen year old's shaky hands come up to her sweating forehead, long dark hair annoyingly sticking to her skin. Dani holds the position for a while, head in her hands and she tries to breathe once or twice. What is emitted are only two, shallow breaths.

Long tear lines run down her face as it is revealed in the light and she while looking around again lays eyes on an object that had fallen off her tattered bed. It was a Capri Sun. The Pacific Cooler type.

Her favorite... and... Dani frustratedly wipes the side of her face before crawling towards it and staying on her knees to read the small sticky note attached to it.

Went back to see some friends. Wanted to give you time. See you when I see you.

I love you.

-Dante.

Dani's lip trembles and trips as a choked sob slips out. She needs him. She wants him.

She's tired... and lost, is failing to cope with the reality that her mom is dead. That Natty... is...  No. It can't be. It can't.

It is.

And Dani has now finally realized that. Adjusted to the painful fact, quicker than another ever could.

Now her emotions run free and curse them for doing so. She hits the back of the door again and cries openly, sobbing as more overtake her heaving body. This force never had an issue showcasing her feelings.

 Her sensitivity allows her to tap into the ones of complete loneliness and despair quite easily. Dani hates that about herself.

It is the same lonely feeling she falls victim to as when she was very little. Seven, crying in the back of an alley all alone after trying to steal some food while living on the streets as an orphan. She was alone during that time, but then, was relieved.

She met people, a father, a family. A mother and several uncles who took care of her better than her real parents, her biological family ever had. 

And Dani would never take what they did for her for granted. Never. Not anymore. Never again.

But here and now, she finds herself alone again during a process that contains much grieving. Grief. Where all emotions genuinely are out of whack, loss of affirmation... and Dani has no choice but to suffer through them all. Go through the motions, all because of the ties she decided to start making with people. Bonds.

Natasha... Tony... Steve... Starting journeys also meant having to say goodbye.

Life isn't permanent. Dani's won't be.

Going through it all by herself, she can, and Dani survives this grief on her own.

She lays down, she cries, and this is how things are left off for a little while.

No doubt Dani will survive. She has to. That is what she stands for, her purpose in this world―what her Mom would have wanted.

For the love... of a mother, is strong, and it's for the sake of a daughter.

And it was real. 

All of it.

All of it...

━━━✰━━━

Love from Alessandra 

Well hello, it's 11 PM when I'm writing this. It's been a little while since the last update & I apologize for that. Actually, I don't because I'm in college now and school is my job. Anywho if you would like to know, things are going well & classes are a lot of work. College is no joke. Happy to be back writing though :)

 Since I am now a full-fledged university student, expect some sporadic updates until I can get on a schedule. Either way, I won't be updating as frequently as I once did (weekly) for now until maybe forever. I guess until summer. I do have one goal though: finish this book by Christmas.

Let's see how I do.

We're getting close to the infamous, big endgame battle with lots of fun things so that should sound exciting (not to mention how tedious it's gonna be to write for me 😐) but we love endgame so it's fine! (Is it?)

This chapter was... well, sad. Natasha's dead, Dani's a mess and will be going through this (the loss) pretty much if not entirely by herself. That's just what is in the cards for someone like her. She's older now and needs to figure out a way to pull herself out of this state so she doesn't hurt anyone (tea). This chapter and the next will be heavily focused on the relationship between Natasha and Dani and a deeper dive into their bond so don't worry if you think it wasn't properly addressed. Natasha will have her final moment (impact) on Dani's life, a send-off, and it will be through the chopping of some long locks. Gosh, I gotta get better at not giving things away.

Oh, well, hope everything is good on your end. thanks for reading. I'm tired.

xoxo, (dreamkept) 

~be a nice human~